Prison Disciplines Publicized Inmate Who Makes Art Using M&M's

By ADAM LIPTAK

Published: August 4, 2006

A prison artist in California who uses the dye from M&M's for paint has been disciplined for what a prison official yesterday called ''unauthorized business dealings'' in the sale of his paintings. The prison has also barred the prisoner, Donny Johnson, from sending his paintings through the mail.

Mr. Johnson's work has been on display for the last several weeks at a gallery in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Twenty of his paintings have been sold, for $500 each.

Mr. Johnson had donated the paintings to the Pelican Bay Prison Project, a charity which says it will honor Mr. Johnson's wish that it use the proceeds from the show to help the children of prisoners.

According to a ''serious rules violation report'' issued by the prison last month, Mr. Johnson ran afoul of a corrections department regulation that prohibits engaging in a business or profession without the warden's permission. The regulation defines a business as ''any revenue-generating or profit-making activity.''

Francisco Jacquez, the chief deputy warden at Pelican Bay State Prison, in Crescent City, Calif., said the violation could extend Mr. Johnson's sentence or restrict his privileges. ''There are some consequences, and that's what we use to maintain discipline in prison,'' Mr. Jacquez said, declining to be more specific.

Stephen A. Kurtz, a founder and director of the charity, said the discipline was unwarranted. ''He wasn't doing business,'' Mr. Kurtz said of Mr. Johnson. ''He was simply making a donation. He didn't make a penny off this.''

The discipline was prompted by a front-page article about Mr. Johnson in The New York Times last month, according to the violation report. Pamela B. Hooley, a deputy attorney general, sent a copy of the article to prison officials on the day it appeared, the report said.

Mr. Johnson, who is 46, is serving three life sentences. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 1980 for a drug-related killing, drawing a sentence of 15 years to life. In 1989, he was convicted of slashing the throat of one guard and assaulting another. Those crimes resulted in two additional sentences of nine years to life.

He has been in solitary confinement in a small concrete cell for almost two decades. He paints with a brush he created with plastic wrap, foil and his own hair. He makes paint by leaching the colors from M&M's in little plastic containers that once held packets of grape jelly. His canvases are postcards.

It is not clear whether the prison will stop Mr. Johnson from creating paintings. In a recent postcard to his mother, Mr. Johnson wrote that prison officials have stopped him from mailing his art to his family, friends and supporters.

A lawyer for Mr. Johnson, Charles Carbone, said he was considering bringing a legal challenge.

The United States and California Supreme Courts have struck down laws that would have prohibited people convicted of crimes from profiting from them. But courts have been reluctant to interfere with prison administration, even where First Amendment issues are involved. In June, for instance, the United States Supreme Court upheld a Pennsylvania prison policy that denied access to newspapers and magazines to some inmates.